"A good stickgrappler has good stick skills, good grappling, and good stickgrappling and can keep track of all three simultaneously. This is a good trick and can be quite effective." - Marc "Crafty Dog" Denny

Grateful to have the day off from work and attend my 2nd daughter's school play. She was great in it.

Belated gratefulness of being able to take advantage of Black Friday and purchase an HP Touchsmart tm2 convertible tablet/laptop.

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"A good stickgrappler has good stick skills, good grappling, and good stickgrappling and can keep track of all three simultaneously. This is a good trick and can be quite effective." - Marc "Crafty Dog" Denny

"A good stickgrappler has good stick skills, good grappling, and good stickgrappling and can keep track of all three simultaneously. This is a good trick and can be quite effective." - Marc "Crafty Dog" Denny

"A good stickgrappler has good stick skills, good grappling, and good stickgrappling and can keep track of all three simultaneously. This is a good trick and can be quite effective." - Marc "Crafty Dog" Denny

Author Robert Fulghum tells this story of one of his professors, a wise man whose name was Alexander Papaderos:

At the last session on the last morning of a two-week seminar on Greek culture, Dr. Papaderos turned and made the ritual gesture: "Are there any questions?"

Quiet quilted the room. These two weeks had generated enough questions for a lifetime, but for now, there was only silence.

"No questions?" Papaderos swept the room with his eyes.

So, I asked.

"Dr. Papaderos, what is the meaning of life?"

The usual laughter followed, and people stirred to go.

Papaderos held up his hand and stilled the room and looked at me for a long time, asking with his eyes if I was serious and seeing from my eyes that I was.

"I will answer your question."

Taking his wallet out of his hip pocket, he fished into a leather billfold and brought out a very small round mirror, about the size of a quarter.

And what he said went something like this:

"When I was a small child, during the war, we were very poor and we lived in a remote village. One day, on the road, I found the broken pieces of a mirror. A German motorcycle had been wrecked in that place.

"I tried to find all the pieces and put them together, but it was not possible, so I kept only the largest piece. This one. And by scratching it on a stone, I made it round. I began to play with it as a toy and became fascinated by the fact that I could reflect light into dark places where the sun would never shine--in deep holes and crevices and dark closets. It became a game for me to get light into the most inaccessible places I could find.

"I kept the little mirror, and as I went about my growing up, I would take it out in idle moments and continue the challenge of the game. As I became a man, I grew to understand that this was not just a child's game but a metaphor for what I might do with my life. I came to understand that I am not the light or the source of light. But light--truth, understanding, knowledge--is there, and it will only shine in many dark places if I reflect it.

"I am a fragment of a mirror whose whole design and shape I do not know. Nevertheless, with what I have I can reflect light into the dark places of this world--into the black places in the hearts of men--and change some things in some people. Perhaps others may see and do likewise. This is what I am about. This is the meaning of life."

And then he took his small mirror and, holding it carefully, caught the bright rays of daylight streaming through the window and reflected them onto my face and onto my hands folded on the desk.

Grateful to be able to attend my 2nd daughter's Winter Concert, she is part of the school chorus.

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"A good stickgrappler has good stick skills, good grappling, and good stickgrappling and can keep track of all three simultaneously. This is a good trick and can be quite effective." - Marc "Crafty Dog" Denny

This Christmas I want to be thankful for those on this forum. BBG for teaching me about the so called "science" of global warming, CCP for his enlightenment about the Jewish struggle, GM for educating me about the evils of Islam and Sharia Law, Doug for his openness to dissent and economic reasonableness and all the others that I have learned from. Most of all my thanks to Rachel for keeping me centered. Happy Holidays to all. May our great country grow and prosper in 2011 and be safe.

"A good stickgrappler has good stick skills, good grappling, and good stickgrappling and can keep track of all three simultaneously. This is a good trick and can be quite effective." - Marc "Crafty Dog" Denny

I echo JDN's gratitudes for this forum and all who come to play. It has taken a lot of doing to bring it to where it is, but thanks to all of us I confess to feeling rather proud of how far we have come and what we do.

I am grateful to again experience the change of seasons, the beautiful music of Christmas and the welcoming message of peace, love, gratefulness and optimism that comes with Christmas and the new year. Joy to the world. Let heaven and nature sing.

Grateful to be able to make it to work through 30" of snow and that it was worthwhile to show up today.

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"A good stickgrappler has good stick skills, good grappling, and good stickgrappling and can keep track of all three simultaneously. This is a good trick and can be quite effective." - Marc "Crafty Dog" Denny

"A good stickgrappler has good stick skills, good grappling, and good stickgrappling and can keep track of all three simultaneously. This is a good trick and can be quite effective." - Marc "Crafty Dog" Denny

"A good stickgrappler has good stick skills, good grappling, and good stickgrappling and can keep track of all three simultaneously. This is a good trick and can be quite effective." - Marc "Crafty Dog" Denny

Grateful I was able to "teach a man how to fish" today. Now he is fed for life.

Grateful jcordova's daughter's fever broke!

An aside: sometime 2000 or so, Guro Crafty came to NYC to teach a seminar at Raw Dog's (Nick Sacoulas') school... I registered and was all set to go, but you can guess how the story will go from here. The night before, my daughter had a 104 fever. We took her to the ER, she stayed for a few days. My training partner J., also signed up for the seminar, was coming from Staten Island via the ferry, I was to pick him up and we go together. I picked him up, dropped him off and went straight to the hospital. Urinary Tract Infection was the guilty culprit. One of the scariest experiences I ever had... my daughter, despite the 104 fever, seemed fine and playful!

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"A good stickgrappler has good stick skills, good grappling, and good stickgrappling and can keep track of all three simultaneously. This is a good trick and can be quite effective." - Marc "Crafty Dog" Denny